The  fourth  block,  vacant,  and  of  no  use  to  the  institution,  was  sub- 
sequently purchased  of  the  Brayton  estate  for  the  sum  of  twenty 
thousand  dollars.  (See  page  41.) 

SUMMARY. 

Block  Xo.  1  cost s  in,030  04 

Blocks  Xos.  2  and  3  cost 80,000  00 

Blocks  Xos.  2  and  3  cost — interest  on  mortgage 11,386  i>5 

Blocks  Xos.  2  and  3  cost — item  for  which  no  account  is 

given 2,929  26 

Block  Xo.  4  cost 20,000  00 


Total  costs  of  four  blocks  "  in  the  heart  of  the  growing 
City  of  Oakland,"  as  shown  by  the  Regents 


§163,345  55 


On  the  thirty-fourth  page  of  the  same  "statements"  the  fol- 
lowing evident  mis-statement  occurs  with  regard  to  the  same 
blocks:  "Since  the  removal  of  the  University  to  Berkeley,  this 
property  is  no  longer  essential.  It  is  growing  in  value,  how- 
ever, year  by  year.  Should  it  be  deemed"  best  to  dispose  of 
it,  it  will  realize  a  sum,  say  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  at  least ;  sufficient  to  pay  off  the  mortgage  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  to  repay  the  Land  Fund  the  thirty-four  thousand  three 
hundred  and  fifteen  dollars  and  fifty-one  cents  borrowed,  and 
leave  a  surplus  of  sixty-five  thousand  six  hundred  and  eighty-four 
dollars  and  forty-nine  cents,  yielding  in  the  shape  of  profit  a  far 
larger  interest  upon  the  amount  of  the  Land  Fund  invested  than 
could  possibly  have  been  derived  from  any  ordinary  safe  investment." 

This  statement  was  probably  intended  to  lead  the  Legislature  to 
infer  that  the  four  blocks  cost  out  eighty-four  thousand  dollars,  and 
that  sixty-five  thousand  dollars  had  been  gained  by  the  speculation; 
when  in  fact  these  four  blocks  cost,  years  ago,  one  hundred  arid  sixty- 
three  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty-five  dollars  and  fifty-five 
cents,  which  was  thirteen  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty-five  dol- 
lars and  fifty-five  cents  more  than  the  Regents  claim  them  now  to  be 
worth,  although — "  in  the  heart  of  the  growing  City  of  Oakland." 

But  there  are  other  causes  of  complaint.  The  outside  property, 
valued  at  about  thirty  thousand  dollars,  adjoining  the  University 
site  at  Berkeley,  which  had  been  obtained  from  the  College  of  Cali- 
fornia, transferred  to  Mrs.  Brayton  in  part  payment  for  blocks  num- 
bers two  and  three,  was  worth  to  the  Agricultural  Department  of  the 
University,  for  experimental  purposes,  at  least  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  which  is  probably  not  far  from  its  present  commercial  value. 
This  indicates  that  the  Brayton  job  has  cost  the  institution  about  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  and  robbed  the  experi- 
mental farm  of  nearly,  if  not  quite,  t<co  1in,i<lr«l  acres  of  ground  essen- 
tial in  making  up  the  necessary  varieties  of  soil  and  location.  The 
Regents  estimate  the  remaining  two  hundred  acres  directly  adjoin- 
ing, although  valuable  and  sheltered  for  horticulture,  at  one  thou- 
sand dollars  per  acre  (see  page  46,  same  statement),  while  the  water 
rights  parted  with  are  practicablv  inestimable. 

J.  H.  HAMILTOX. 


REPORT 


COMMITTEE  ON  EDUCATION 


ASSEMBLY-TWENTY-SECOND   SESSION 


REPORT, 


Mr.  SPEAKER  :  Your  Committee  on  Education,  having  visited  the 
several  institutions  of  learning  under  the  control  and  management 
of  the  State,  beg  leave  to  submit  the  following  report : 

First  in  the  order  of  our  visits  was  the  University  of  California, 
and  it  gives  us  pleasure  to  state  in  general  terms  that  all  we  saw 
impressed  us  with  the  conviction  that  it  is  worthy  of  the  high 
position  it  has  already  attained  among  the  institutions  devoted  to 
the  higher  scientific  and  classical  learning  in  this  country,  and 
should  be  cherished  generously  by  the  State.  No  similar  institution 
has  made  greater  progress  during  the  period  of  its  existence.  Its 
Faculty  are  men  of  approved  ability  and  devotion  to  education. 
Among  them,  there  are  some  who  have  achieved  not  only  a  national 
but  a  European  celebrity  as  scientists  and  educators.  There  are  also 
among  them  young  men  who,  faised  in  our  midst,  are  exhibiting  the 
qualities  which  furnish  the  assurance  that  they  will  prove  worthy 
co-laborers  with  their  older  colleagues.  The  enthusiasm  for  learn- 
ing was  an  unmistakable  feature  pervading  every  department  of  the 
University,  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  judge.  We  had  opportunity  to 
witness  the  regular  daily  instructions  in  several  of  the  classes  of  the 
University,  which,  without  exception,  were  characterized  by  clear- 
ness and  vigor  on  the  part  of  the  Professors,  and  earnest  and  intelli- 
gent attention  on  the  part  of  the  students.  We  were  not  displeased 
to  observe  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  each  Professor  to  magnify  his 
own  department.  We  have  spoken  thus  fully  concerning  the  corps 
of  instructors  now  employed  in  the  Universit}^,  because  we  believe 
that  the  establishment  of  a  great  and  successful  institution  of  learn- 
ing depends  more  upon  the  quality  and  caliber  of  the  men  who  fill 
its  chairs  than  upon  fine  buildings,  costly  apparatus,  and  extensive 
libraries.  Of  President  John  Le  Conte  and  his  not  less  distin- 
guished brother,  and  their  associates  in  the  Faculty  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  California,  it  is  but  justice  to  say  they  are  worthily  filling 
the  positions  they  occupy. 

We  found  that,  after  a  delay  which  we,  in  common  with  all  others 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  University,  regret,  the  building  for 
the  use  of  the  College  of  Mining  and  Mechanic  Arts  was  in  course  of 
construction.  The  importance  of  this  department  of  our  University 
need  not  be  urged.  The  site  of  the  new  building  is  good,  and  the 
plan  of  its  construction,  as  explained  to  us,  seems  to  be  judicious. 
Whatever  aid  may  be  necessary  for  the  equipment  and  development 
of  this  College  of  Mining  and  Mechanic  Arts  will  be  cheerfully 
extended. 

The  College  of  Agriculture,  under  the  management  of  Professor 


Hilgard,  a  gentleman  of  the  large  information,  keen  perception,  inde- 
fatigable activity,  and  earnest  devotion  to  agricultural  interests,  is 
conducted  in  such  a  way  as  to  more  fully  meet  the  popular  wish  and 
expectation.  Our  visit  to  this  department  of  the  University,  and 
our  investigations  concerning  its  past  history,  present  condition,  and 
the  plans  proposed  for  its  future  development,  lead  us  to  think  that, 
while  it  may  never  conform  to  the  Utopian  and  impracticable  notions 
of  some,  it  will  be  of  almost  incalculable  benefit  to  the  agricultural 
interests  of  California.  That  it  will  receive  the  generous,  fostering 
care  of  the  State,  we  do  not  doubt. 

Of  the  other  departments  of  the  University,  it  is  not  necessary  to 
speak,  further  than  to  say  that  they  seem  to  be  efficiently  conducted. 
The  discipline  of  the  institution  is  good,  and  will  not  suffer  by  com- 
parison with  that  of  older  institutions  in  the  Eastern  States. 

As  the  crown  of  our  public  school  system,  the  interests  of  our 
University  should  be  jealously  guarded,  and  its  wants  generously 
provided  for.  As  details  of  its  affairs  will  be  obtained  from  other 
sources,  we  content  ourselves  with  this  general  glance,  and  with  a 
recommendation  that  the  State  continue  to  extend  its  protection  and 
support  to  an  institution  which  is  an  honor  and  a  blessing  to  our 
young  commonwealth. 

The  Institution  of  the  Deaf,  Dumb,  and  the  Blind  was  next  visited 
by  your  committee.  The  good  order,  the  cheerfulness,  the  neatness, 
and  the  activity  pervading  the  Institution  were  too  obvious  to  allow 
us  to  doubt  the  competency  and  faithfulness  of  its  Principal,  Professor 
Wilkinson,  and  his  assistant  teachers.  The  hygienic  arrangements 
were  as  good  as  the  crowded  condition  of  the  building  permitted. 
The  beds  were  clean,  the  dormitories  well  lighted  and  ventilated, 
the  food  well  cooked  and  served  in  a  proper  manner.  The  children 
of  misfortune  have,  by  the  beneficence  of  the  State,  been  furnished 
here  with  a  home  where  their  comfort  is  provided  for,  and  a  scho6l 
in  which,  under  the  rnarvelously  effective  methods  of  modern 
instruction,  the  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind  are  introduced  into  the  world 
of  thought,  and  their  sources  of  happiness  increased  a  hundred-fold. 
The  new  buildings,  to  replace  those  destroyed  by  fire,  when  com- 
pleted, will  be  models  of  convenience,  comfort,  and  general  adapta- 
bility to  the  purposes  for  which  they  are  designed.  This  Institution 
is  every  way  creditable  to  California  as  a  civilized  State,  and  what- 
ever appropriations  are  necessary  to  maintain  its  efficiency  will  not 
be  grudged  by  any  legislator  who  truly  represents  the  intelligence, 
the  humanity,  and  liberality  for  which  her  people  are  celebrated. 

The  State  Xormal  School,  at  San  Jose,  was  found  by  us  to  be 
crowded  with  pupils,  not  less  than  five  hundred  being  in  attendance. 
Surveying  them  as  they  sat  before  us  in  the  commodious  hall  of  the 
Normal  School  building,  at  the  opening  exercises,  we  were  favorably 
impressed  with  their  general  appearance.  The  recitations  we  wit- 
nessed were  in  most  instances  admirably  conducted,  showing  that 
the  teachers  were  fully  up  with  the  latest  and  best  methods  of 
instruction,  and  that  the  institution  is  now  what  it  claims  to  be,  a 
Normal  School,  in  which  the  art  of  teaching  is  imparted  to  those  who 
will  make  it  their  business.  Professor  Chas.  H.  Allen,  the  Principal, 
is  assisted  by  a  corps  of  teachers  of  the  first  order  of  ability  in  their 
several  special  departments,  and,  by  their  joint  exertions,  they  have 
built  up  a  Xormal  School  whose  popularity  is  attested  by  the  num- 
bers who  crowd  its  halls,  and  whose  excellence  is  proven  by  the  ser- 


vice  its  graduates  are  rendering  to  the  cause  of  education  in  every 
part  of  the  State.  The  magnificent  square,  surrounding  the  noble 
Normal  School  edifice,  continues  to  lie  unimproved  for  lack  of 
means.  We  think  the  time  has  fully  come  for  a  reasonable  appro- 
priation to  be  made  for  this  object. 

In  view  of  the  large  increase  of  attendance  upon  the  Normal 
School,  and  the  consequent  demand  for  additional  instructors,  for 
additions  to  the  library,  and  for  apparatus  for  illustrating  the  differ- 
ent branches  of  study  pursued  in  the  institution,  the  increase  in  the 
appropriation  for  defraying  its  current  expenses  seems  to  be  neces- 
sary. The  amount  asked  for  by  the  Trustees  in  their  report  to  the 
Governor  seems  to  be  needed,  and  we  trust  that  it  will  be  granted. 
A  generous  support  should  not  be  withheld  from  an  institution  which 
is  doing  so  much  for  the  advancement  of  popular  education  in  Cal- 
ifornia. 

R.  C.  HAILE,  Chairman, 
F.  N.  PAULY, 
ALBERT  T.  YOUNG, 

B.  F.  TUTTLE, 
RUSH  McCOMAS, 
J.  A.  HICKS, 

C.  S.  ABBOTT. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


